Victor Ortiz: I’m going to have my hand raised at the end of the night

By Boxing News - 06/21/2012 - Comments

Image: Victor Ortiz: I'm going to have my hand raised at the end of the night(Photo: Ester Lin/Showtime) By Allan Fox: A confident former WBC welterweight champion Victor Ortiz (29-3-2, 22 KO’s) promised victory for Saturday in his bout against fringe welterweight contender Josesito Lopez (29-4, 17 KO’s) for the vacant WBC Silver welterweight title at the Staples Center, in Los Angeles, California.

At Thursday’s press conference, the 25-year-old Ortiz said “We both plan to do one thing and that is to destroy each other. I will hold my hand up at the end. I’ve been working too hard.”

Hopefully Ortiz is right about that, because he can’t afford to take the 27-year-old Lopez lightly because there’s too much at stake starting with Ortiz’s scheduled big money pay-per-view bout against WBC junior middleweight champion Saul Alvarez on September 15th. That’s going to be Ortiz’s big chance to turn his career around and put him in line for the big names such as Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao. A loss for Ortiz against Lopez will sink not only the Alvarez fight but also any hopes and dreams Ortiz ever had of getting back in the ring with Mayweather for a rematch.

Lopez hasn’t fought since losing a controversial 10 round split decision to fringe welterweight contender Jessie Vargas last September. A lot of boxing fans think that Lopez did enough to deserve a win in that fight. However, it was close enough for it to go either way, and certainly wasn’t a rip off decision by any means.

Lopez has to be busy if he wants to beat Ortiz. He doesn’t have Ortiz’s power, speed or talent, but he does have plenty of heart. You combine that with a heavy pressure and a high work rate and we could see Lopez pull off a huge upset on Saturday night. However, Lopez will have to take some big shots in order to get the win. It won’t be easy especially if Lopez plans on going toe-to-toe with Ortiz, but it is a winnable fight for him.



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